My Giddy Aunt- new designs, glass jars and suitcase tables

Goodness gracious me! It has been so cold and wet in these parts lately I'm planning to move to Venus (although the sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide might make it a little difficult to have a good ol' "throw a shrimp on the barbie" houeswarming shindig). I might need to  modify our 16 year old car a little if we seriously plan to go.

The Kooky Green Owl has been busy thinking of new things to make. I have had a few people tell me they would like to see more brooches. So what about this one?

Just kidding- but it made me laugh :)

I will be putting 10 brooches on the table next month (hopefully a spot has been secured at the Emerald market again)....and I guess I'll know if they were the right choice or not...

I am currently in love with suitcase tables. I hope to make one in the coming weeks. Here are some ones that I think are pretty cool:

I've found a great tutorial here, that will help you make one of these funny looking tables.

I've also wanting to show you how to turn ordinary jars like this:

Into beautiful coloured jars like this:

using mod podge, food colouring and time. The good news is that they look great at a party, with tea lights/ random foliage in them- the bad news is, it's not permanent...it will eventually peel off :( I cannot find the original recipe that was found for the jars above but the recipe can be found here (although the finish is a little different to the one above). If  you wanted a more permanent result, you can the details from here.

(sorry to the source, but I cannot find the original recipe)

Happy Wednesday everybody!

It was awesome!

A BIG thank you to the community of Emerald and my lovely friends and family for all the positive comments and support I received yesterday at the market.

Putting yourself out there can be quite daunting, especially for somebody like me, but I was genuinely surprised at the great response and feedback I received. It just gives me more incentive to make more things :).....and a special thank you to my husband, who looked after our three children AND kept the house tidy. AWESOME!

I have been quite clumsy this morning. I've damaged three parts of my body already and it is only 10:40am! By the end of the day, I expect to be in a full body cast!

I also have some lovely artwork on my walls- thanks baby for choosing the permanent marker.

She's sharpening her drawing skills

I hope everybody has a lovely week. x

Yikes- I've been tagged!

Hello all,

I was tagged by my lovely friend Kelly, and now I'm suppose to write 10 things about myself....please get your nightcap ready so you can nod off whilst you read this:

I hate dried Banana chips.
I was about 8 or 9 and ate a whole bowl at my Auntie Annie's house, and for the next two days I payed severely for my gluttony. I can't even take a whiff without gagging now.

I purposely set my mum's new Russell Hobbs kettle on fire (please look away now Mum).
Well I was half asleep actually. So the old stove top kettle died and Mum was so excited to get her shiny new stainless steel electric kettle from Myer.  The time of offense was approximately 6am on a Monday morning. Getting ready for work, grabbed the kettle, filled it with water, put it on the stove top, AND TURNED IT ON. In took about a minute to realise what I had done. Although there was the smell of burning electrical elements in the house, Mum could not figure why the kettle was not working, so she took it back to Myer and they replaced it under warranty (although the report came back saying the electrical elements had been burned and melted- who knew ex C.I.A investigators worked at Myer). Sorry Mum.
Note to the above: I did feel some guilt....I didn't finish making my cup of tea that morning.....

Whilst we are on the subject of electrical appliances (look away again, Mum)-
I once put a knife in a toaster which was in the process of toasting. I am a very lucky person to not have any permanent damage (depending on who you talk to) and again, I didn't tell my mum- she just thought the toaster cracked it.

I eat my corn cob from left to right.

I can't wink properly.

I hated my now husband, when we were teenagers.

You have the right to switch the internet off now after reading this:
I LOVE ANCHOVIES! Phew, glad that's off my chest!

I love gross stuff. (you tube is awesome for this)

I use to be so shy as a teenager, that sometimes, when we were at a public gathering, I would go and hide in the toilet....and now I have a blog.....and 3 kids?!?! who am I??

I can't say the word nu...nu..nuc....nuclear- ahhhhh, I said it. Most times it comes out Nooclar.

Okay, now back to preparing for the market- thanks for stopping by :)

The one with the blue dress

Caught!....by my children, standing inside the pantry, with a silver teaspoon and the Nutella jar....hey, at least I didn't use my finger,  my little kids in blue. (I'm glad they didn't tell my mum, or else I'd probably get a smack).

I think my postman has a lot of sick days. Either that, or he's hooning around on his lil' postie bike with his postie friends or something. I don't get mail everyday, and when I do get it, it comes in massive batches. This is not good considering I am waiting on a gazillion packages so I can finish making my products for the market this weekend. Maybe he's sick of people telling him he looks like Al, from Tool Time- you know, Tim the tool man Taylor's sidekick....you need a reminder?:

How you doin?

Anyway, that little blue dress that I was telling you about. I bought it second hand, and I really love it. Here is a picture:

I really love it....except....it's too short! I have chicken-Esq legs, complete with ugly chicken feet (thanks dad). But I guess that's not so bad- aren't chicken feet a delicacy in some countries? Anywho, I've had to unpick the hem and the pleat in the middle to add this at the bottom:

1960's vintage trimming

I do not have an after shot, as yet, but I may have to incorporate some of this lace on the top half of the dress as well......still thinking about it. My sewing skills are not up to scratch at the moment, or is that my brain?, so the finished product might look like this:

I don't know if this dress is a positive thing. Poor lady.

Well, I'm off to mop the floors. I hope you guys have as good a time as I will:)

A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore!

Apparently Australia is phasing out the humble 5 cent coin. I like the 5 cent coin, especially when I'm rummaging around in the bottom of my bag at the supermarket (literally the bottom- there's a hole in the lining) and find twenty 5 cent coins that enables me to go to the cash register and swap it for that pesky dollar you need to get a supermarket trolley.....such a hassle for me as I hardly ever carry around cash anymore.

Well whilst I was scraping the barrel that was my handbag, I found one of my rings that I thought I had lost. I had been looking for it for a long time and had given up. Well, I had the biggest smile when I found it- it made my mad Monday!

My mad Monday was pretty, well, mad! Baby owl spent most of the day unraveling the foil and plastic wrap rolls, putting dirty dishes from the dishwasher back into their respective places, and cleaning my toilet bowl with MY toothbrush. Thanks baby!

I managed to finish off some pendants due to some stock that arrived today. My darling was lovely enough to fold  The Leaning Tower of Pisa (my washing pile) and help me untangle 10 meters of chain.  He knows I'm a little bit Kooky at the moment, due to this infamous market coming up! I have a couple of photos to show (please excuse the poor quality- I have many excuses but I can't make them sound exciting so I won't go into it)

i have included a range of vintage floral images. This is a dome setting

About half of my pendants have charms on them. Sorry. It was 12pm at night and I did not put it on straight (those who know me also know that I button up my kids jacket's wrong so one side is longer than the other)

A vintage butterfly image. Gee my hand is looking a bit old and crabby there...

Some of the rings have a fillagree detail on the band.

 I know this is personal style and not everybody's cup of tea (or coffee)- but I wanted my loot to look not perfect and old....I've also mixed my metal colours. Sorry. But what's a girl to do- I can't make things I don't like can I? 


Thank you for stopping by...I'm off to count sheep :)) Goodnight chicadees!

Sticky fingers and not in the thieving kinda way....

So what happens when you haven't slept in five years, and using an industrial strength glue? Most people would put the glue down, reasoning that they would not accomplish much in their zombie like state.

Not this Kooky Owl. No- I had to continue with what I was doing. Today, I was making feather facinators, for my upcoming market in less than two weeks. Of course, I had to make sure it was suitable, with the trying on (before it was dry) and guess what happened? No? Can't guess?

I NOW HAVE INDUSTRIAL GLUE IN MY HAIR which obviously won't come out......maybe time for a  Dame Judy Dench haircut? I think so.

So on a positive note- I am doing a market in less than two weeks! I am participating in our local market, in Emerald Victoria, and was lucky enough to grab an indoor stall. (in this weather, if I was outdoors, my toe would probably snap off by lunchtime)......

On my table, I am hoping to have pendants, rings, brooches, earings, facinators (hopefully the glue will be dry), solid perfume and some felted scarves and baby booties. Let's see if I can do it!

I have so many ideas coming out of my pores, especially the facinators. Examples:

Can't go wrong with peacock feathers!

In Love!

Super Cute.

Simple minds have to start out with simple things.....so simple is my thing with the facinators this week.....if I get good at it, I might be able to produce something interesting like this:

not too sure about this one...

 
 Happy Thursday everybody!

The last phew days...

Now before you get your underpants in a twist, I did promise a dress makeover in this post. I have no excuse to give you except:

- The dog ate it

-My internet was down

-I accidentally divided by zero and my paper burst into flames.

-I could only get arbitrarily close to my textbook. I couldn't actually reach it.


-I have a solar powered calculator and it was cloudy

-I gave it to a homeless man to line his hat with.


Okay so most of these excuses were stolen  (if you're looking for some really good excuses - google it- so many good ones out there) but all I can say is that 3 out of 5 were sick (that's 60%)....and I had no choice but to look after them.

It is on my very long, indicipherable to do list ( i tend to do these at 3am in the morning) so hopefully it will be on a post this week :)

What i did do was make lots of stuff to make sure I book myself into a local market.....pretty darn exciting for this Kooky Owl.

So, lets discuss red lips. I love red, painted lips. It looks so lovely, especially with mustard clothing. I can't do red lips though...let me give you an example:

Stunning! so beautiful!

I love this! She pulls it off perfectly.......but:

this would so be me after 5 minutes of putting the red on. No chance of being polished.

 I hope everybody has a lovely week. Red lips or not!